STREETSCAPES: The McAlpin Marine Grill; The Fate of a Polychrome Grotto Hangs in Balance

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IT'S one of the most unusual interiors in New York City - an expansive grotto of flowing, polychrome terra cotta. The 1912 Marine Grill in the old Hotel McAlpin at the southeast corner of 34th Street and Avenue of the Americas was developing a cult following among architectural historians and preservationists. But now the building's owner has closed the restaurant, is working on the space and won't say anything about its future.

Early 20th-century hotel construction was an exercise in quick obsolescence - with a new generation of buildings completely eclipsing the old one every three or four years. Telephone, telegraph, plumbing, elevator and other mechanical services rapidly advanced, but each new hotel also sought singular decorative schemes. The Astor Hotel had an American Indian Grill and a Pompeiian billiard room, the Plaza had the Germanic-style Oak Room and the airy Palm Court, and the Vanderbilt Hotel had an unusual Grill Room with tiled, vaulted ceilings.

The 1,500-room McAlpin Hotel, opened in late 1912, was considered the largest hotel in the world and it also attempted to outdo its predecessors. There were floors restricted to women, men and even night workers - where silence was enforced during the day. There was a tapestry gallery, a banquet room with a vaulted ceiling, a giant marble lobby, a Louis XVI-style dining room and Russian and Turkish baths.

In 1913, the Real Estate Record and Guide noted another unusual feature of the McAlpin. Unlike other giant hotels, the McAlpin rented out its valuable store space all along the street frontages, moving its main rooms up or, in one case, down a floor. The basement room, at first called the Rathskeller and within a few months the Marine Grill, remains one of the most unusual in New York City.

The Marine Grill is a forest of tile-clad piers that curve up and form great curved vaults, all in a glazed riot of ornament and color - brown, green, cream, silver and scarlet. Giant semicircles along the walls carry faience panels depicting the maritime history of New York.

DESIGNED by Fred Dana Marsh, these show such noteworthy ships as the Half Moon, the steamer Clermont and the Mauretania against contemporary backgrounds, also in high color.

The magazine Architectural Review in 1913 wrote ''if there is any limit to the possibilities of colored clay for decorative purposes, this is it,'' and credits the overall tile work to the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company and the hotel's architect, Frank M. Andrews.

But the Marine Grill is not just a surface ornament. The upward curve of each great pier expands out to its neighbor in a series of sinuous shapes, curving in three dimensions. It is a polychrome forest of massive, stunted trees, but expressive of the room's underground location and the giant hotel bearing down on top of it.

The magazine Brickbuilder called it ''an architectural and decorative triumph.'' It is far more dramatic than the corresponding, much more reserved room at the old Vanderbilt Hotel, at 4 Park Avenue, now a restaurant.

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In 1951, Hotel World-Review reported that the Marine Grill ''had been closed for several years,'' but would soon be reopened with ''name bands.''

After 1960, it was quietly operated by a succession of middle-grade restaurants all of which struggled against the invisibility of their basement location. It was generally unknown to architectural aficionados and not listed in encyclopedic works like the W.P.A. Guide to New York City or the A.I.A. Guide to New York City.

About 15 years ago, said Kent Barwick, former chairman of the Landmark's Preservation Commission and now president of the Municipal Art Society, chanced on the old Marine Grill. ''The food was unspeakable, but the restaurant was exhilarating,'' he said.

Mr. Barwick said that he had called Elliot Willensky, co-author of the A.I.A. Guide, and told him, ''Drop everything and get over to see this place.''

''My jaw dropped and then I took other people just to see their jaws drop, too,'' said Mr. Willensky the other day, ''and they did. It's one of the most memorable spaces in New York and the great thing about it was that it was completely intact, preserved quite unofficially, almost accidentally.''

He gradually introduced those active in New York City preservation and history to the room - John Tauranac, William Alex, Lorna Nowve and others. No one ever proposed the room as an interior landmark.

The restaurant closed this spring and Devorah Rankin, a spokesman for the owner, McAlpin Associates, refused without explanation a recent request to inspect the Marine Grill saying ''there's nothing there you would want to see anyway.''

She said there was work going on in the restaurant, but would say only that the space is not for rent at the moment. Whether its accidental preservation will continue is now anyone's guess.

A version of this article appears in print on July 23, 1989, on Page 10010006 of the National edition with the headline: STREETSCAPES: The McAlpin Marine Grill; The Fate of a Polychrome Grotto Hangs in Balance. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe